And Space—Force We Need

Special Warfare Attrition p. 42 | Solving Safety p. 34 | Boeing’s T-X Win p. 16 WHAT’S NEXTFOR TYNDALL Six Keys To The Future Of A Wrecked Air Force Base December 2018 $8 Published by the Air Force Association Forget cars – we make advanced jet engines for the US military. At our high-tech facilities in Indianapolis, Virginia and around the US, thousands of skilled Americans work every day to deliver the engines needed to power US military air crews to their missions – and back home safely. American-made jet engines, from Rolls-Royce North America. www.AmericanMadeJetEngines.com December 2018. Vol. 102, No. 12 FEATURES 23 STAFF 20 Publisher Larry O. Spencer Editor in Chief Tobias Naegele Managing Editor 42 Juliette Kelsey Chagnon Editorial Director John A. Tirpak News Editor Amy McCullough Assistant Managing Editor Chequita Wood 20 Can Tyndall Recover? 34 Safety First 46 Outstanding Airmen of the Senior Designer By John A. Tirpak By Brian W. Everstine Year Dashton Parham Six questions in need of After the stand-down, more The 12 Outstanding Airmen of Pentagon Editor answers. focus on readiness. the Year. Brian W. Everstine 24 Unwinding the Maintainer 38 Retaining Future Air Force 50 The Fall of France Senior Editor Steve Hirsch Mess Women Generals By John T. Correll By Brian W. Everstine By John A. Tirpak Miscalculations led the Digital Platforms Editor A problem years in the Women are underrepresented superior force to a stunning Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory making continues—especially in Air Force ranks. There are defeat in less than six weeks. Production Manager ways to change that. Eric Chang Lee in the Guard and Reserve. 56 The Best Bargain 42 Special Treatment for in Militar y Histor y Photo Editor 30 Deterrence in Europe Mike Tsukamoto By Amy McCullough Special Warriors By Walter J. Boyne and Philip USAF is prepositioning By Steve Hirsch Handleman base supplies and materials How the Air Force is building The stunningly e ective and Contributors Walter J. Boyne, John T. Correll, throughout the European the next generation of special adaptable B-52. Robert S. Dudney, Philip Theater. warfare airmen. Handleman, Jennifer Hlad ADVERTISING: Arthur Bartholomew DEPARTMENTS 213.596.7239 Tom Buttrick 917.421.9051 2 Editorial: The Air—and 8 Screenshots 27 Air Force World James G. Elliott Co., Inc. Space—Force We Need [email protected] 14 Forward Deployed 60 Wingman: Gen. Larry By Tobias Naegele By Jennifer Hlad Spencer Receives More bureaucracy will not SUBSCRIBE Eisenhower Award, AFA make us stronger in space. 16 Aperture Emerging Leaders & SAVE By John A. Tirpak 3 Letters Subscribe to Air Force 64 Namesakes: Loring Magazine and save big o the 18 Verbatim 4 Index to Advertisers cover price, plus get a free membership to the Air Force Association. Call 1-800-727-3337 FOLLOW US GET THE ON THE COVER The control tower at Tyndall AFB, Fla., Oct. 10. See “What’s Next for facebook.com/ twitter.com/ instagram.com/ Tyndall,” p. 20. Photo airforcemag airforcemag airforcemag by SSgt. Alexander go.afa.org/DailyReportSubscription Henninger Air Force Magazine (ISSN 0730-6784) December 2018 (Vol. 101, No.12) is published monthly, except for two double issues in April/May and October/November, by the Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. Phone (703) 247-5800. Periodical postage paid at Arlington, Va., and additional mailing o ices. Membership Rate: $50 per year; $35 e-Membership; $125 for three-year membership. Subscription Rate: $50 per year; $29 per year additional for postage to foreign addresses (except Canada and Mexico, which are $10 per year additional). Regular issues $8 each. USAF Almanac issue $18 each. Change of address requires four weeks’ notice. Please include mailing label. POSTMASTER: Send changes of address to Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. Publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. Trademark registered by Air Force Association. Copyright 2018 by Air Force Association. DECEMBER ★ AIRFORCEMAG.COM Editorial By Tobias Naegele, Editor in Chief The Air—and Space—Force We Need Three themes are playing out across the Air Force as 2018 nears Air Force and Lockheed maintainers who got them back in the air its end. Together they speak volumes about where the service is faster than initially thought possible. Yet the fact remains that, in headed—or could end up—in the future. an emergency, the Air Force could only surge 70 percent of those The first is the vision for the future size of the force, what Air F-22s to get them out of harm’s way. Force leaders are calling “the Force We Need.” The second is the What if that had been an attack instead? disaster that befell Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida and what that On a more familiar battleground—Washington—sides are form- tells us about the true state of Air Force readiness today. The third ing up for the battle over a proposed new “Space Force.” Led by is the battle over space, and the politics, costs, benefits, and risks Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan, the Pentagon of creating a brand-new, independent armed service for space. is drawing up plans to form a Department of the Space Force from Our Air Force is too small to match the demands of the National parts drawn mostly from the Air Force, with smaller pieces from the Security Strategy. Its 312 operational squadrons are overworked Army and Navy. The logic is that space is a unique domain, that prior and under-resourced. Shortages of parts, pilots, and seasoned administrations under-invested there, and that a new bureaucracy maintainers mean aircraft can’t fly and pilots can’t maintain peak is needed to guide development of space-based capabilities. readiness. Witness the rash of accidents last winter that led to Wilson and Goldfein are in favor of the split, as long as it a servicewide safety stand-down in spring. The conclusion: Op is done right. Some question their bona fides, however. The tempo and stress are undermining safety. knives came out for Wilson because she had the audacity to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Sta Gen. David put a price-tag on her own plan: An internal study pegged L. Goldfein make the case for 386 operational squadrons, a 24 the five-year cost of forming a Space Force headquarters and percent increase, with added capability in almost every aspect of secretariat at $13 billion. the force. So far, they oer this as a conclusion, not a detailed plan Space Force zealots howled that the price tag was inflated and for how to get there. It’s unclear how they arrived at this number, that its release was intended to undermine space independence. whether they anticipate changing A better answer is that this was squadron composition or how many America does not need a an honest act of transparency, a new people, planes, and other gear dose of reality about the true cost they will need to acquire. Secretary of the Space Force. of bureaucracy. The only reason Yet the arguments for growth are to fear and object to that reality is clear. The Air Force is fraying at its edges. It has been in constant that it interferes with the logic and excitement of creating a new combat since 1991—27 years. The average age of USAF planes is military branch. 28, double what it was in the first Gulf War. Many airframes are America does not need a Secretary of the Space Force. Adding now irreplaceable. We can’t buy more“ C-17s or F-22s. Our B-52 a Space Force Chief of” Sta will not increase the lethality of the US bombers and KC-135 tankers date from the KennedyAmerica administration. does notmilitary. need The aJoint Chiefs will not become wiser with the addition It’s a struggle to keep many of the service’s premier aircraft of an eighth four-star general. ready to fight: The F-22A had the service’s lowestSecreta mission-capablery of the SpaceThe United Force. States does need, however, to invest in space rate in 2017 at 49 percent; the B-1, B-2, and F-35 were all under 55 capabilities that enhance our ability to use space eectively for percent. If a crisis strikes tomorrow, half our combat aircraft won’t our national defense. First, we must ensure the Air Force’s space get o the ground. mission is fully funded. Second, we must formally acknowledge This is not just a USAF problem. The Navy’s F/A-18 mission-ca- space as a warfighting domain with the re-establishment of US pable rate is also only 55 percent. This“ is what happens when Space Command, as the” Pentagon already envisions. Modeled on missions grow and resources shrink, as happened during the US Special Operations Command, SPACECOM would also provide dark days of sequestration. With the recently Aannouncedmerica cuts does to notjoint-service need a domain expertise and leadership without creating a the 2020 budget, it is happening again. separate service and all the costs that would entail. If necessary, What does it look like when the alarm soundsSecretar and planesy can’t of thewe Space can ensure Force. the nation understands where our primary mili- get o the ground? Look at Tyndall. Hurricane Michael was an tary focus on space resides by renaming the Air Force as the US act of God, not of war, but its vengeance was no less menacing, Aerospace Force. its destruction no less complete, and the lessons no less severe.

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